Non-Bluetooth gamepads? - General Questions and Answers

I've been wanting to get one of those game controllers for my LG G4, that the phone clips onto/fits into, but I'm unsure about the technology.
The ones I've seen fall into three categories:
Bluetooth. Most of the gamepads designed for phones seem to be Bluetooth (probably because it was available sooner). I really don't like the idea - in my experience, Bluetooth is super unreliable, and it seems awfully wasteful to use a power-hungry radio connection to an accessory that's physically touching the phone.
NFC. Seems like maybe less wasteful (I don't know how much power NFC draws, but I imagine it's less than Bluetooth), but I've only seen them for Samsung devices. Do they exist for other brands? Are they any better in terms of battery draw and reliability? Can NFC even be used for that sort of long-term connection or is Samsung doing something special to make it work?
USB. As I understand, on most phones today the USB port works as both a client (to connect to a PC) and, with the right cable, a host (to connect other devices to the phone)? So it should be possible to connect an ordinary USB gamepad? I feel like that would be the most reliable (no wireless interference) and efficient (no radio), though USB can be fairly power hungry too... Anyway I've never seen gamepads designed for phones that use USB, either.
So, do USB or NFC gamepads exist that are designed to hold a phone? Do they work with the G4? Which technology is better?

Related

Suggest a phone

Any suggestion for a good cell phone to purchase these days?
Got a cell phone and a pda, and wanted something that would embrace both features of the devices in one.
So basically some cell phone/smartphone/whatever from which you can call, like from a normal cell phone and also it must work/recognize/accept my already obtained SIM card from an old cell phone(no expensive plans or any).
Can act as a pda(I don't know how can it actually act as a pda, but would like to be able to surf the Internet, store any data, view documents, listen to music, with adequate amount of storage).
The most important part is that this device just has to have a usb connector, not on one side usb and another some weird thing that only fits your cell phone, but both sides. Also would be awesome if it also had a capability of recharging through usb.
A very good camera, especially one that can take clear pictures while shaking the device.
Slot for either microSD/SD/HCSD relatives would be a plus, but not that important.
WiFi, Bluetooth. I don't know about 3G, but don't you have to overpay to use this feature?
Basically that's it, the main point is that you can call, manage and store data like on a usb, not use thousand wires to do a specific thing such as recharge or connect to PC, headphone hole ofcourse, and a touchscreen. As for the shape, bar only.
Price? Surprise me...
IPhones are NOT welcomed!
Regards.
"The most important part is that this device just has to have a usb connector, not on one side usb and another some weird thing that only fits your cell phone, but both sides. Also would be awesome if it also had a capability of recharging through usb."
don't really get this part so you mean you want a normal big usb connector ?
rather then miniUSB?
personaly I'm happy enough with my sonyE x1 it got 3.5mm jack
slideout keyboard and wifi, bluetooth and 3.5g
Yes I mean miniUSB.
never seen a phone which had normal usb a or b connectors but
miniUSB is a perfectly legit usb connector my logitech universal remote and my usb tvbox use the same connector
the cables can be bought in normal stores

Add external usb webcam to phone?

Can you add a webcam to the charge?
Sounds kind of dumb, right? Well here is what I am thinking.
I need a inspection camera on occasion, aka snake camera. Well, they are ~300 for a decent one. So I found that they sell just a little usb camera on a flexible cable for cheap.
If I could get this to display on the Charge, that would make for a nice budget inspection camera.
So is that possible? Does the micro-usb port work like that on these phones? Or just for charging? What about the micro-hdmi?
I'm pretty sure the HDMI is output only. The USB provides a mass storage interface and a debugging interface. It *may* be possible to do something like that through the debugging interface, but it wouldn't just work...it would require some software to be written for the device, if it's possible at all. I really don't know how much info you can put through the debugging interface, so it may be a total wash.
Tiny Camera Monitor Pro
Just my take on it, If you had another Android Device (Hero, Droid orginal, etc) you could just set it up as a webcam, and see that on video stream on your Charge. You'd have to have a custom setup to get that snake cam to work. You'll have to keep digging the internet to see if anybody else has done it.
Why couldn't we be the first? The HDMI is output only, but the USB port has been used as a port for some flash drives on other devices. Google USB Host Control and USB Mass Storage for Android. Obviously, at least *some* (sarcasm) code would have to be written, and it would likely only work with that one model of camera (drivers, would be a PITA to write multiple). Also, there would be an issue of an external power source to power the camera as I don't think you could just power it from the port.
Tl;dr seems possible to me but it would take quite a bit of work, maybe more than its worth
Sent from my SCH-I510 using xda premium
This really depends if the charge has usb host capabilities.
I actually kind doubt it but could be wrong, although most tablets do though.
And as far as powering the webcam you could use a self powered usb hub.
This is a issue the touchpad has and perhaps could be relevant, the touchpad had host capabilities . but can't supply enough power so some folks jimmyrigged it up.
http://rootzwiki.com/topic/3724-functional-usb-host-on-touchpad/
One could possibly get USB host support to work, but I think that it'd be difficult to get the camera to be usable on the Charge. Drivers wouldn't be the biggest issue, I would think getting the device powered and having a way to view what the camera is seeing would be a bigger problem.
imnuts said:
One could possibly get USB host support to work, but I think that it'd be difficult to get the camera to be usable on the Charge. Drivers wouldn't be the biggest issue, I would think getting the device powered and having a way to view what the camera is seeing would be a bigger problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Seem like it could be possible. Seen this with cyanogenmod 9.
Type "External USB cam on Android 4.0.4 with Toshiba folio 100" into youtube
ncunning said:
Seem like it could be possible. Seen this with cyanogenmod 9.
Type "External USB cam on Android 4.0.4 with Toshiba folio 100" into youtube
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Except that the folio is a tablet and has USB host built in, meaning it can run/use devices by itself instead of just being a device. Also, the tablet has much more power to spare, while powering something like a camera on USB would kill this phone quickly.

Makeshift USB/HDMI "Dock"...?

I want to take advantage of the S5 MHL capability. Perhaps eventually using the phone as my everyday computer.
So I would need to have usb keyboard and mouse while connected to a monitor.
I have ordered the device pictured below, it reportedly supports the S5 in some kind of half-assed way, meaning that you may have to fiddle with inserting cables in a certain order to get it to work.
This is what I read anyway.
I want to know if any of you have used the Galaxy S5 in such a way. Will my device work? Know of a better solution?
I had some dreams of making my own Diy S5 dock, but I would have to know what kind of electronic/hardware configuration works (if any), as the S5 is different in that it does not support dock mode (Why samsung... why?).
Well I can report that it works. HDMI out works with sound, and it charges while doing so, but the USB port and the card reader does not work apparently.
Obviously the form of the device is a poor match for the Galaxy S5. I had to remove the plastic housing to make it fit, because of the watertight hatch in front of the USB port. Later I will use a USB extender cable.
Hopefully there is a possibility to make OTG (or host mode, or whatever it's called) work.
It appears this device supports the S5
http://andromiumos.freeforums.net/thread/4/officially-supported-android-phones?page=1&scrollTo=4
http://www.andromiumos.com/
There is two question marks here.
1) Does S5 support simultaneously operation with OTG active and HDMI output active.
2) Does this gadget also support such a functionality?
I don't know. I've read people claiming that you can use both hdmi & otg at the same time including post's on xda. But i've also read people saying you can't. I certainly havn't seen any video demonstrations.
By the way i currently have my S5 displayed on my monitor using mhl->hdmi adapter and have my pc mouse and keyboard working on the S5 wirelessly with Samsung SideSync. I opened the xda app with the pc mouse and have typed this reply with the pc keyboard. I've done some navigation on the phone, opened and used a range of apps. All is well till i opened firefox and the mouse disappeared from the monitor. It's still displayed and functional on the S5 screen though. Closed firefox and the mouse is displayed on the monitor again.
Sent from my SM-G900I using XDA-Developers mobile app
mbdroidsony said:
All is well till i opened Firefox and the mouse disappeared from the monitor.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Therefore your new question this is : Does Firefox (Android) this supports four input devices connected at the same time?
Android Keyboard = 1
External keyboard = 2
Android touch pad = 3
external mouse = 4
And all that active by also active HDMI
I would be surprised if Android OS has such potentials.
I was using Andromium OS app which gives you option to turn off android keyboard and dim S5 screen. Both those functions worked. Andromium OS has 3 menus from start menu. Andromium Apps(browser, file manager), Supported Apps (gmail, youtube), Unsupported apps (all other apps installed on device). PC mouse and keyboard worked fine with Andromium Apps & Supported App. PC mouse and keyboard also worked fine with most unsupported apps i tested except firefox browser and adblock browser. If i get my hands on a bluetooth mouse/keyboard i'll test again to see if it works with firefox browser and adblock browser from monitor.
Personally I am going to use my HP iPAQ FA287 Bluetooth keyboard at S5 ( or at least I will try).
Also ordered one OTG cable (CY U2-166) that hopefully this will offer power to the phone and External HDD, due micro USB (female input for charger cable) and this will become also my mouse input too.
Therefore I am interested for your inquiry / investigation, possibly as much you do, because I do also favor Firefox.
I favour android firefox browser and adblock browser because they are consistent in providing desktop view. I'll provide an update here when i get my hands on a bluetooth mouse & keyboard.
Kiriakos-GR said:
Personally I am going to use my HP iPAQ FA287 Bluetooth keyboard at S5 ( or at least I will try).
Also ordered one OTG cable (CY U2-166) that hopefully this will offer power to the phone and External HDD, due micro USB (female input for charger cable) and this will become also my mouse input too.
Therefore I am interested for your inquiry / investigation, possibly as much you do, because I do also favor Firefox.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, did this cable charge your S5 while using OTG/USB Host?
Sent from my SM-G900I using XDA-Developers mobile app
mbdroidsony said:
Hi, did this cable charge your S5 while using OTG/USB Host?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My cable did not arrive yet from China.
But even so, in the past days I did some research about finding more details by discovering the factory that makes those cables.
According to real Specifications: (after me correcting errors due bad translation)
High quality Original USB 2.0 Micro-B HOST OTG CABLE
Interface:
Micro USB male: = Output To be connected with OTG complying device ( Your phone or tablet).
Micro USB female: = DC input To charge = Supply of Power due micro USB female connector ( This is only to supply DC voltage to USB A plug this powering hard drives etc etc).
USB female: To connect with USB A device.
Therefore or in conclusion, this cable is not in position to supply power for the phone and the external hard drive.
Later on, that I did the electrical math, I can now explain and the why ? (this cable cannot do both).
By assuming that mobile phone or tablet this requiring 450mA at charging (due PC USB plug), and removable hard-drives (some of them requiring another stable supply of 500mA) the sum this is almost 1A of power.
Manufacturing of OTG cables this requiring from the manufacturer, him to make a product according to OTG cable international standards (compatibility - safety - functionality).
Only if Samsung makes a OTG cable specifically for S5, this will be able for active Host and charging.
All cables available at the moment, them have generic compatibility and non of them will work as we expect or wish.
Kiriakos-GR said:
My cable did not arrive yet from China.
But even so, in the past days I did some research about finding more details by discovering the factory that makes those cables.
According to real Specifications: (after me correcting errors due bad translation)
High quality Original USB 2.0 Micro-B HOST OTG CABLE
Interface:
Micro USB male: = Output To be connected with OTG complying device ( Your phone or tablet).
Micro USB female: = DC input To charge = Supply of Power due micro USB female connector ( This is only to supply DC voltage to USB A plug this powering hard drives etc etc).
USB female: To connect with USB A device.
Therefore or in conclusion, this cable is not in position to supply power for the phone and the external hard drive.
Later on, that I did the electrical math, I can now explain and the why ? (this cable cannot do both).
By assuming that mobile phone or tablet this requiring 450mA at charging (due PC USB plug), and removable hard-drives (some of them requiring another stable supply of 500mA) the sum this is almost 1A of power.
Manufacturing of OTG cables this requiring from the manufacturer, him to make a product according to OTG cable international standards (compatibility - safety - functionality).
Only if Samsung makes a OTG cable specifically for S5, this will be able for active Host and charging.
All cables available at the moment, them have generic compatibility and non of them will work as we expect or wish.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Samsung hasn't made it easy for us S5 users. Might have to resort to wireless charging at this rate.
Samsung Galaxy S5 Qi Wireless Charging Kit EP-WG900IBEGWW
Just going to throw this out there...
Why not use a bluetooth mouse/keyboard (or even one of those combined ones) with the phone mirroring it's screen to a ChromeCast plugged into your monitor? There's minimal (and I mean you're looking at 10ms) lag - or that's my experience, but I have a really really really fast router etc - and if you're planning on using it essentially as a PC, this setup will work wonders. Plus you can plug the phone in. I've considered using my old S3 in this way.
yetep said:
Just going to throw this out there...
Why not use a bluetooth mouse/keyboard (or even one of those combined ones) with the phone mirroring it's screen to a ChromeCast plugged into your monitor? There's minimal (and I mean you're looking at 10ms) lag - or that's my experience, but I have a really really really fast router etc - and if you're planning on using it essentially as a PC, this setup will work wonders. Plus you can plug the phone in. I've considered using my old S3 in this way.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Charging the S5 through 2A cable would be faster than wireless charging. MHL to HDMI adapter charges the phone as well as mirror your phones screen. I've never used bluetooth mouse and keyboard. Would the S5 support pairing and using both mouse and keyboard at the same time?
By the way there are products for the S3,S4 that support mhl, otg & charging at the same time like the UNITEK Y-2165.
http://www.amazon.com/UNITEK-Multim...5&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B00OFKY4XA#Ask
mbdroidsony said:
By the way there are products for the S3,S4 that support mhl, otg & charging at the same time like the UNITEK Y-2165.
http://www.amazon.com/UNITEK-Multim...5&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B00OFKY4XA#Ask
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Speaking of compatibility, S5 this is a brother model to Note III.
I do such an assumption due the identical charging system specifications.
From the other hand with all those variants of G900, there is no chance to offer an 100% reliable prediction if you do not test any such OTG product with your own phone.
The link above this is about a Currently unavailable product.
Even so it is interesting that this worked for someone with Note III.
mbdroidsony said:
Charging the S5 through 2A cable would be faster than wireless charging. MHL to HDMI adapter charges the phone as well as mirror your phones screen. I've never used bluetooth mouse and keyboard. Would the S5 support pairing and using both mouse and keyboard at the same time?
By the way there are products for the S3,S4 that support mhl, otg & charging at the same time like the UNITEK Y-2165.
http://www.amazon.com/UNITEK-Multim...5&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B00OFKY4XA#Ask
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The S5 (or certainly my model, G900T) DOES support everything I mentioned however my bluetooth mouse/keyboard is a 2 in 1 setup with the mouse being a trackpad below the keyboard, similar to a laptop. It mirrors directly to my monitor and I've forced Landscape orientation throughout the OS so it works wonderfully. I've not tried yet with the S3, but I'd assume it'd work the same way. Just need to force the screen to stay always on, pop the screen brightness right down and hide it away in a cupboard and boom, full android computer.
On the original question, a cable must exist but unfortuantely I don't know where.
yetep said:
Just need to force the screen to stay always on, pop the screen brightness right down and hide it away in a cupboard and boom, full android computer.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Definable this is a bad idea the screen to stay always on.
Does phone screen brightness this have any effect at HDMI output (brightness) ?
Nope, but turning it off does. I don't mind it burning out as it's an old device I don't use.
yetep said:
Nope, but turning it off does. I don't mind it burning out as it's an old device I don't use.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I bet 20 Euros that every one reading this topic he/her, will wonder of why you/he, does not simply turn the brightness down.
Either way, Android it is crippled operating system with out offering much of productivity as it does one regular Windows PC.
Neither a smartphone this is capable for long term gaming, the poor thing does not even have active cooling, and CPU will start slowdown so to protect it self from overheat.
My 0,2 cents, you are in a wrong path.
Kiriakos-GR said:
Speaking of compatibility, S5 this is a brother model to Note III.
I do such an assumption due the identical charging system specifications.
From the other hand with all those variants of G900, there is no chance to offer an 100% reliable prediction if you do not test any such OTG product with your own phone.
The link above this is about a Currently unavailable product.
Even so it is interesting that this worked for someone with Note III.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The link i gave has a few reviews that can give you an idea of what phones are compatible and which ones arn't. Youtube has video demos of the UNITEK Y-2165, unfortunately none for the S5. It appears the desktop dock feature is on the Note III where as samsung removed the dock feature from the S5.
---------- Post added at 12:48 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:24 AM ----------
yetep said:
The S5 (or certainly my model, G900T) DOES support everything I mentioned however my bluetooth mouse/keyboard is a 2 in 1 setup with the mouse being a trackpad below the keyboard, similar to a laptop. It mirrors directly to my monitor and I've forced Landscape orientation throughout the OS so it works wonderfully. I've not tried yet with the S3, but I'd assume it'd work the same way. Just need to force the screen to stay always on, pop the screen brightness right down and hide it away in a cupboard and boom, full android computer.
On the original question, a cable must exist but unfortuantely I don't know where.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
oh ok, so only 1 device paired.
There's a great app for having screen brightness right down called Screen Standby.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nkahoang.screenstandby&hl=en
The adronium os app forces landscape.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.andromium.os&hl=en
I tell you what, i really like the concept of carring you desktop in your pocket. Can you imagine that, doing your desktop stuff, unplug the phone and head out with everything you did at home on the desktop in your pocket. I know microsoft have a desktop adapter for their Lumia 950 XL phones which changes the layout to desktop mode on the monitor/tv to give you that PC-like experience.
Microsoft Display Dock
https://www.microsoft.com/en/mobile/accessory/hd-500/
It's a real shame samsung removed dock support from the S5.

Using LG G5 on Ethernet network

Hello.
I recently came into possession of an LG G5 Android phone, T-Mobile variant H830. I was planning to use it for software development, and I was wondering if there's a way to get it to connect to the internet using my ADSL connection. I'm fairly new to the wonderful world of Android, so please bear with me.
I realize Wi-Fi is the path of least resistance... but it's not the best option in this particular house and I have a fine Ethernet network just sitting there waiting to be used. Also, my old Windows Phone (ducks) is able to use it just fine.
I have a USB type C hub (a Microsoft HD-500 display dock) and a small collection of USB to Ethernet adapters (Realtek RTL8153, ASIX AX8872B). Unfortunately, the LG G5 has no interest in recognizing any of them.
I've also played around with reverse tethering to my PC, but apparently it requires root access to even work, and even after that it doesn't even work very well.
Does anyone have any suggestions on how to make this work? Should I be looking into flashing LineageOS? Or maybe I just have the wrong phone?
Thanks.
Today's progress: I played with an app called ReverseTethering, which works by establishing a VPN connection to its host PC over an ADB-controlled USB pipe. Most apps seem fine with it. However, the Google Play Store insists on using Wi-Fi to download apps and won't recognize a reverse-tethered connection. It does resume in-process downloads over the connection, but won't initiate new ones. My conclusion is that this is an app bug, and that it is checking for Wi-Fi when it really should simply be checking for a valid connection.
There's an app called Fake Wifi that will apparently hack apps into thinking their connection is over Wi-Fi when it's not. However, this app needs a framework that requires a rooted device. So, back to square one.
(NB: I'd prefer not to root my device for security reasons.)
Today's progress: connecting a Sharkk UH-SKRJ11 (RealTek RTL8153 chipset) directly to the phone using a USB C-to-A adapter works. A couple of apps seem iffy about it, including the Google Maps offline downloader, but the Google Play Store and the LG updater work. So this is probably as good as it gets without major surgery.
This suggests that the problem was in fact the Microsoft HD-500 display dock. It would charge the phone, but the phone didn't seem to recognize it as a USB hub.
Does anyone have a suggestion for a USB Type C hub that works with this phone? Ideally I'd like to use Ethernet and charge at the same time.
Hello,
I work on the desktop team at a company and we started using Dell's DW-15 USB-C docks since Dell is phasing out the E-port. Out of curiosity, I plugged my phone into one a couple of months ago and everything but the display output works. We also have Dell 96NPS USB-C to Ethernet adapters that work fine with the G5.
I have this here.
Bought from eBay. Works on both G5 and V20. Should work on any phone that supports SlimPort.
I have connected it to the phone with display and various peripherals. Did not try ethernet dongle though.
I'm a bit puzzled that the Microsoft dock did not function right. I though that too was simply a display/slim-port design. Or maybe it's only the hub/otg functionality that's unavailable?
@askermk2000: thanks for the note. Any idea what the model number is on that device?
The Microsoft dock situation is quite odd. Before fully patching the OS (the phone arrived with the March security patch, I think) it wouldn't see anything at all on the dock (which has a Surface Ethernet Adapter aka RTL8153 plugged in). After patching, it suddenly started working, and working fine. Then after patching up to latest, it sort of half-works. It connects and data flows, but the phone pops a "Connecting" message for a minute every so often, as if it were pulling a new DHCP address or something. When connected directly to the Ethernet adapter, things work fine.
(And when I say fine, I mean mostly fine. Every now and then I plug in the adapter and nothing works. Disconnecting and reconnecting sometimes works. Changing USB connection settings sometimes works. Sometimes rebooting works. <shrug>)
@Keynesian
I'm sorry but there is not a single marking on that thing. A truly generic device.
That exact one seems to have become rare now. This looks like the successor, though it has one less usb port than mine.
Here's a listing of mine.
There are many generic types, with or without hdmi, one or more usb etc
One option with aluminum housing, 1 usb 1 hdmi and usb-c power input should cost no more than about $10
I think I got mine for around that (which is a more expensive model), but I got lucky and found a lonely expiring auction. Saved maybe $20
Weird about that dock of yours. Hopefully you'll have better experience with another one.
If I had an ethernet dongle I'd try to confirm if it works with or without the dock on my H850, but that could also depend on the type of chipset and driver used (and LG's flavor of the month it seems).
Just ordered one of these off Ebay. We'll see how it goes in a month:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/UBS-3-1-Ty...-Charging-Port-OTG-Adapter-Cable/162309246619

Charging and transmit data over usb?

I've researched this quite a bit and no of the solutions seem to fit my scenario. I'm looking for a solution to use a tablet as a gcode sender for my cnc machine. Otg cables can transmit fine, but there's no charging available (without installing a resistor, which is honestly more hassle than I'm looking for) and some of my carves take longer than the battery life. I have USB-c to hdmi hub with 3 USB ports, and it works when using on my phone, but I can't have my fold 3 sitting in the shop all day...so maybe a cheaper mhl compatible tablet would work?
I have yet to buy anything bc I don't want to waste money on something that's not going to work. Processing power doesn't really matter as it just needs to transfer gcode, and I'd prefer it to be on the cheaper side as it's going to be in a very dusty environment. Any and all help is appreciated.

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